South Carolina Files Suit Against Purdue Pharma

South Carolina filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma LP last week, becoming one more in a string of states that is seeking justice for the current opioid epidemic in the country. The state is accusing the pharmaceutical giant of deceptive marketing.

The suit was filed in Richland County Court of Common Pleas in Columbia by South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson. Within the suit, Purdue Pharma stands accused of deceptive and unfair marketing of opioid painkillers. The attorney general claims that the pharmaceutical company told doctors that patients do not typically become addicted to the drugs.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that opioids were involved in the death of more than 33,000 people in 2015. It is estimated that the death toll has risen since then. For the last decade, the company has downplayed the addictiveness of its opioid painkillers and overstated their benefits.

Drugmakers have been sued by New Hampshire, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri and Oklahoma to date. Purdue settled a similar lawsuit in 2007, and the latest lawsuit says that the company has continued to “engage in misleading opioid marketing practices.” When the lawsuit will officially be heard in court was not immediately known.

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